Local women fashion float to honor WASPs

Published: Tuesday, December 31, 2013 at 01:39 PM.

Recently retired Northwest Florida State College educators Joyce Goldstein and Julie Nichols have put in eight-hour days since before Christmas to helping to create a float for the Tournament of Roses Parade Wednesday.

It will honor World War II’s Women Air Force Service Pilots on the 70th anniversary of their formation.

For Nichols, the work is a way to honor her 94-year-old mother who was a WASP.

For Goldstein, the incredible effort of building a moving monument using just organic materials allows her cross a biggee off her bucket list.

“This has always fascinated me,” she said.

The work on the float was nearly complete Tuesday morning, and emotions were seeping out after nine days of a true labor of love.

“It means so much to me,” a teary Nichols said in a telephone interview from California. “There were a lot of tears at this site.”

Gen. Hap Arnold formed the WASP unit in 1942 when the military needed pilots to ferry aircraft from assembly lines to American bases. The women he recruited, and those who later were trained to fly, proved to be so proficient that by war’s end WASPs were flying fighters and bombers across the ocean to Europe.

A total of 1,102 women served as pilots in World War II, according to Frank Goldstein, Joyce’s husband. Thirty-eight died in the line of duty.

Some WASP veterans will ride on the float.

Construction of the float, which will pass the reviewing stand near the end of today’s parade, was organized by the Wingtip-to-Wingtip Association.

Everything on the float is organic material, Goldstein said. For instance, the plane on the float is a replica of an AT-6 trainer and is covered in gray rice glued grain by grain to resemble the metal of the actual aircraft.

Recently retired Northwest Florida State College educators Joyce Goldstein and Julie Nichols have put in eight-hour days since before Christmas to helping to create a float for the Tournament of Roses Parade Wednesday.

It will honor World War II’s Women Air Force Service Pilots on the 70th anniversary of their formation.

For Nichols, the work is a way to honor her 94-year-old mother who was a WASP.

For Goldstein, the incredible effort of building a moving monument using just organic materials allows her cross a biggee off her bucket list.

“This has always fascinated me,” she said.

The work on the float was nearly complete Tuesday morning, and emotions were seeping out after nine days of a true labor of love.

“It means so much to me,” a teary Nichols said in a telephone interview from California. “There were a lot of tears at this site.”

Gen. Hap Arnold formed the WASP unit in 1942 when the military needed pilots to ferry aircraft from assembly lines to American bases. The women he recruited, and those who later were trained to fly, proved to be so proficient that by war’s end WASPs were flying fighters and bombers across the ocean to Europe.

A total of 1,102 women served as pilots in World War II, according to Frank Goldstein, Joyce’s husband. Thirty-eight died in the line of duty.

Some WASP veterans will ride on the float.

Construction of the float, which will pass the reviewing stand near the end of today’s parade, was organized by the Wingtip-to-Wingtip Association.

Everything on the float is organic material, Goldstein said. For instance, the plane on the float is a replica of an AT-6 trainer and is covered in gray rice glued grain by grain to resemble the metal of the actual aircraft.